Sunday, 31 July 2016

Alexandra Ullmer and Girish Gupta produced a great little article based on good investigative work. Their research shows how a well-known Colombian supporter of Chavismo, Alex Saab, can be linked to a company that was trying to pocket a huge contract with PDVSA, Venezuela's once solid and now crumbling state oil company.

Venezuelan blogger Alex Boyd had written about Saab before. You can read him in Spanish here and in English more recently here.

Now: why do I bring up that title? Because I want to ask you - yes you - to use a tiny bit of your free time some day to expand the Wikipedia articles related to corruption in Venezuela

You can write in Spanish here, in English here and in German here. Remember: be more kosher than the rabbi and more Catholic than the Pope when it comes to objectivity. It's Wikipedia. Avoid using blogs as direct references - yes, as painful as it is for a blogger- and prefer the most respected references from well-known news agencies and from books. Remember: there are a lot of Chavismo apologists out there who would remove anything from Wikipedia that may be critical of the regime unless the sources are very well selected and the wording is spotless for Wikipedia standards.

Chavismo will collapse only when the thugs in power realize jail for them is unavoidable if they keep a single minute there. Each one of us can accelerate that moment by painstakingly documenting Chavistas' crimes. Wikipedia is just one of many means but one that should not be underestimated.

Minister of "Justice" on socialism, his tie and his shoesHere an English article explaining the whole thing for those who do not speak Spanish. I wonder if Italian communist ministers also wear that kind of clothes.